Otjiwarongo man sent to jail for 28 years

29 Jan 2014 11:20am

WINDHOEK, 29 JAN (NAMPA) - Otjiwarongo resident Elias Nghiikovali Lukas was sent to jail for 28 years on Wednesday after he had stabbed and killed his former girlfriend's lover at that town in December 2010.
High Court judge Naomi Shivute sentenced Lukas after convicting him of murder with a direct intent to kill on 01 November last year.
Lukas, 29, killed Malakia Matias during a fight between them at Otjiwarongo on 17 December 2010.
According to the evidence of this case, the accused person stabbed the deceased person with a hunting knife, which was described in this court as a knife similar to the ones used in butcheries.
I had the opportunity to look at the knife when it was produced in this court. It is a big knife, and clearly a dangerous weapon. The deceased person was stabbed 11 times on the body, and most of the stab wounds were directed to his vital organs - being the heart, lungs and liver, said Shivute.
According to the judge, Lukas' actions clearly indicated that he is a danger to people, and thus should be removed from society for a long period of time.
You committed a heinous crime just over a minor disagreement between you and the deceased person. You mercilessly stabbed the deceased person 11 times on the body.
I am, therefore, of the opinion that you should be removed from society for a long period of time. In the result, you are sentenced to 28 years imprisonment, said Shivute.
State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu also asked the court to impose a long custodial term.
Lukas' State-sponsored defence lawyer Titus Ipumbu, on the contrary, wanted a lenient punishment.
Lukas pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder at the beginning of his trial on 16 July 2013, and said he stabbed Matias several times in the chest while acting in self-defence after the deceased person had first drawn a knife and tried to stab him, cutting him on his fingers in the process.
He said anger prompted him to run after the deceased and stab him again after the latter had taken off during the fight.
Dr. Joseph Bulaya conducted the post-mortem on the deceased's body, and testified in court that the stab wound to the liver and another to the lung may have caused the deceased's death, together with bleeding from nine other wounds which Matias sustained on that fateful day.
Windhoek-based private defence lawyer Titus Ipumbu represented Lukas, acting on the instructions of the Justice Ministry's Directorate of Legal Aid.
Lukas is a first offender with no record of previous crimes, and is a single father of a three-year-old child.
(NAMPA)
SKE/TK